Scientists from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) managed to create the first solar cell with a quantum efficiency of more than 100%.
Quantum efficiency is the ratio of electrons number that have arisen in the chain of the solar cell to the number of photons of a certain wavelength. Given that a high-energy photon could knock out a few electrons, the quantum efficiency can exceed 100%.
NREL specialists managed to get 114% rate.
The key to success, according to scientists, was the use of multi-exciton generation effect, in which one absorbed photon creates a single pair of electron-hole.
The researchers hope that their development in the future will lead to solar panels that produce electricity that could cost competitive with electricity from other sources.